text-align Attribute | textAlign Property

Sets or retrieves whether the text in the object is left-aligned, right-aligned, centered, or justified.

Syntax

HTML { text-align : sAlign }
Scripting object.style.textAlign [ = sAlign ]

Possible Values

sAlign String that specifies or receives one of the following values:
left Default. Text is aligned to the left.
right Text is aligned to the right.
center Text is centered.
justify Text is justified.
The property is read/write for all objects except the following, for which it is read-only: currentStyle. The property has a default value of left. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) attribute is inherited.
Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

The property applies to block elements. The property is inherited by all block-level objects inside a div object. This parameter receives null if the attribute is not set.
The justify possible value is available as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0.

Examples

The following examples use the text-align attribute and the textAlign property to align text within the object.
This example uses p as a selector and two classes to call an embedded style sheet that aligns the text according to the respective rule.
<STYLE>
P { text-align:center }
.align1 { text-align:right }
.align2 { text-align:justify }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P onclick= "this.className='align1'"
ondblclick="this.className='align2'">
. . . </P>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.
This example uses inline scripting to change the alignment of the text when an onmouseover event occurs.
<P STYLE="font-size:14"
onmouseover="this.style.textAlign='center'">
. . . </P>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Standards Information

This property is defined in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Level 1 (CSS1) .

Applies To

BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, CENTER, currentStyle, DD, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, FIELDSET, FORM, hn, HR, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=text, LI, LISTING, MARQUEE, MENU, OL, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, runtimeStyle, style, TABLE, TD, TEXTAREA, TH, TR, UL, XMP